ECONOMY - Example of Wall Street Greed

I am posting this as a prime example of Wall Street greed. The idea that industry SHOULD expect the same profits as "unusual set of circumstances" provided. A sales growth of 2.9% is not enough in their greedy eyes.

The industry does make a profit NOW, just not the inflated-profits of the past. Also consider the new flat-panels are not likely to last as long as the old CRT does, so they will continue to sell.

NOTE: My last CRT TV lasted 15yrs+, and I only changed because of the coming of digital TV.

"A Bonanza in TV Sales Fades Away" by SAM GROBART, New York Times 1/5/2011

Excerpt

By now, most Americans have taken the leap and tossed out their old boxy televisions in favor of sleek flat-panel displays.

Now manufacturers want to convince those people that their once-futuristic sets are already obsolete.

After a period of strong growth, sales of televisions are slowing. To counter this, TV makers are trying to persuade consumers to buy new sets by promoting new technologies. At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, which opens Thursday, every TV maker will be crowing about things like 3-D and Internet connections — features that have not generated much excitement so far.

Unit sales of liquid-crystal and plasma displays were up 2.9 percent in 2010 from the previous year, according to figures from the market researcher DisplaySearch. That is tiny compared with the gains of more than 20 percent in each of the prior three years.

Those heady days of the last decade were the result of an unusual set of circumstances. The rise of flat-panel television technologies like plasma and LCD almost perfectly coincided with a government-mandated switchover to digital broadcasting and the availability of high-definition shows and movies — something these new televisions were all ready to display.

That sparked a mass migration of consumers from using the old cathode-ray tube television sets to the thinner and lighter plasma and liquid-crystal displays.

“Those were the golden years,” Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research at DisplaySearch, said. “During that period, the whole pie grew. Technology inflated the size of the category.”

But now, most people who want a flat-screen TV already own one. Industry watchers and manufacturers estimate that nearly two-thirds of households in the United States have a flat-screen set.